Introduction
In today's fast-paced business world, change has become a constant. Companies are constantly restructuring, merging, and pivoting in an attempt to stay competitive. But what if all this change comes at a hidden cost? In "The Problem with Change," author Ashley Goodall explores the often-overlooked human toll of constant organizational upheaval and offers insights on how to navigate these turbulent waters.
This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt the ground shift beneath their feet at work. Whether you're a senior executive leading change or an individual contributor trying to weather the storm, Goodall's insights will challenge your assumptions about organizational change and provide practical strategies for building resilience.
The Turbulent Reality of Modern Work
Life in the Blender
For many workers today, the workplace feels like a constantly shifting landscape. Mergers, reorganizations, new strategies, and office relocations have become the norm rather than the exception. Goodall aptly describes this state as "life in the blender" – a constant whirl of change that leaves employees dizzy and disoriented.
Consider Sarah, an HR professional whose company was acquired. Despite keeping her job, she found herself in unfamiliar territory as many of her colleagues were replaced or left. The loss of her professional network left her feeling deeply unsettled and disconnected from the organization she once knew so well.
The Ripple Effects of Constant Change
Stories like Sarah's are all too common across industries. The constant flux makes it challenging to get work done as reporting lines shift, processes change, and key people leave. Networks and relationships that took years to build are suddenly severed, leaving employees feeling lost and distrustful.
Layoffs, which often follow reorganizations, sow further disruption. Uncertainty breeds anxiety as everyone wonders when the next big shake-up will hit. Employees find themselves reading into every little sign, bracing for impact when communication from leadership becomes sparse.
The Futility of Endless Change
Linda's story illustrates the exhausting nature of constant change. Over her 24-year career, she's weathered 44 major changes across 12 companies. Her spreadsheet tracking these changes is a testament to the chaos she's endured – from re-interviewing for her own job after a division sale to losing half her team in a layoff.
What's most striking about Linda's experience is her observation that despite all this upheaval, her industry is still struggling. As she puts it, "It makes you wonder what it's all for." This sentiment captures the growing skepticism many employees feel towards the promises of organizational change.
The Runaway Train of Change Initiatives
Once set in motion, change initiatives often take on a life of their own. Even when it becomes clear that things aren't going as planned, course corrections are rare. It's as if organizations become captive to their own change initiatives, seeing them through even as evidence mounts that things have gone off the rails.
This raises an important question: If change is supposed to be so good and necessary, why is it so often experienced as miserable and destructive on the ground?
The Hidden Costs of Disruption
The Psychological Toll
Change in organizations exacts a significant human toll, often in ways that aren't immediately visible. It severs the connections that provide us with a sense of stability, control, and meaning at work. These connections aren't just to our coworkers and familiar routines, but also to our imagined futures and our sense of agency.
One of the most distressing byproducts of change is uncertainty. Not knowing what the future holds or how you'll be impacted can result in chronic anxiety. Your mind desperately seeks to reestablish a sense of certainty, latching onto whatever information is available, no matter how unreliable.
Loss of Control and Learned Helplessness
Compounding the stress of uncertainty is the loss of control. In most organizational changes, employees have little say in the process. New realities are dictated from above with minimal opportunity for input. This lack of agency can lead to a state psychologists call "learned helplessness," where individuals become passive and depressed, internalizing a sense of futility that decreases overall motivation.
The erosion of autonomy takes a physical toll as well. Research has linked low job control to increased risk of heart disease and mortality, with impacts comparable to or even exceeding those of secondhand smoke. The constant elevation of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline can have serious long-term health consequences.
Disruption of Social Fabric
Beyond control, change disrupts the social fabric of an organization, severing the connections you've forged with colleagues. These relationships fulfill a deep-seated need for belonging and are crucial for engagement and performance. Having a best friend at work, for instance, is one of the strongest predictors of job satisfaction and productivity.
While companies often focus on abstract notions of corporate "family," what really sustains people day-to-day are the more intimate, localized social bonds with teammates. The shared laughter over lunch, the camaraderie of tackling a project together, the trusted confidante in the next cubicle – these are the interactions that weave people into a social fabric and make them feel rooted and part of something meaningful.
When reorganizations and personnel shifts break apart these crucial connections, scattering work friends to the winds, employees are left feeling unmoored and disconnected.
Displacement from Familiar Environments
Change also uproots attachments to places and routines. Over time, everyone settles into a comforting rhythm as they move through the same spaces and motions each day, weaving an embodied relationship with their surroundings. Changes like office moves or shifts to remote work shake employees out of that physical rhythm, displacing them from their familiar environment and daily habits.
This disorientation cuts much deeper than mere inconvenience; it disrupts the sense of being grounded and situated in a familiar world. While these contexts, connections, and relationships can be rebuilt with time and effort, the psychological impacts of having them severed, even temporarily, are significant and often underestimated by those implementing change.
Strategies for Mitigating the Impact of Change
Creating Space for Autonomy
So how can leaders mitigate the human toll of organizational change? Goodall offers three key strategies: providing space, maintaining connection, and offering affirmation.
First, it's crucial to resist the temptation to micromanage during times of uncertainty. When the ground is shifting beneath everyone's feet, it becomes even more important to give people the autonomy to find their footing. Trusting employees to navigate challenges in their own way can help restore a sense of control that change often strips away.
Of course, this autonomy needs to occur within well-defined guardrails of core values and standards. But these guardrails themselves can act as a steadying force when everything else is in flux, providing a consistent framework within which people can operate.
Staying Connected
Equally important is staying connected with your people. Frequent check-ins can serve as a lifeline of stability amidst the chaos. These conversations should focus primarily on understanding each person's evolving needs and how best to support them, rather than merely assessing their performance.
Sarah, the HR manager mentioned earlier, found that weekly one-on-one conversations with her new boss became an essential anchor during her company's transition. Her lead didn't try to dictate how she should navigate the changes. Instead, he offered an attentive ear and helped her tap into her own problem-solving skills. Knowing she had a consistent sounding board and source of support made all the difference in her ability to adapt.
Affirming Competence
Amidst change, people also need affirmation of their strengths and capacities. Organizational shake-ups can leave even the most accomplished employees questioning their ability to succeed in the new landscape. Leaders should counteract this by deliberately recognizing excellent work and specifically celebrating how each employee's unique skills have helped buoy the team through difficult times.
Take Priya, an account manager whose team underwent a major restructuring. Despite the upheaval, she managed to find creative ways not only to retain clients but also to expand the business. Her manager enthusiastically highlighted Priya's tenacity and resourcefulness in a team meeting, describing exactly how her actions had made a difference. This recognition gave Priya a renewed sense of confidence and motivation. She realized she could adapt and contribute meaningfully, no matter what changes came.
Building Resilience Through Support
These three strategies – space for autonomy, maintained connection, and affirmation of competence – work together to create teams and organizations that are more cohesive and resilient in the face of change. By providing these supports, leaders can help their people weather the storm of disruption and emerge stronger on the other side.
Reimagining Organizations for Resilience
A New Vision of Leadership
What would your organization look like if you reimagined it as a place of groundedness, even in the face of change? The most forward-thinking leaders are doing just that – and unleashing new levels of creativity, resilience, and performance in the process.
Consider Aaliyah, who took the helm as CEO of a struggling software company. She knew a turnaround would require significant changes, but rather than letting the upheaval erode morale and motivation, she saw an opportunity to build a culture of ownership and resilience.
Empowering Through Trust and Vision
Aaliyah started by articulating a clear vision and values for the company, then gave her teams wide latitude to determine how to deliver on those core principles. This combination of clear direction and trust in her people's abilities created a powerful dynamic.
Emboldened by this trust and support, employees started going above and beyond their job descriptions to find creative solutions. When a major product launch was delayed, threatening a key partnership, a group of engineers and marketers took initiative. They huddled up to devise an alternative offering, working around the clock to create a slimmed-down version that delivered the core functionality on time.
Reinforcing a Culture of Initiative
At the launch event, Aaliyah made sure to credit the team's ingenuity and dedication, reinforcing that this was the kind of initiative she wanted to see more of. Over time, these stories of employee-driven success became folklore, weaving a new narrative about "the way things are done around here."
People no longer saw themselves as passive victims of change, but active stewards of the company's future. The more autonomy and recognition they were given, the more they rose to the occasion with resourcefulness and drive.
The Power of Recognized Value
What Aaliyah and other exceptional change leaders understand is that when people know their fundamental value is recognized, they show up differently. They're more willing to take risks, to stretch beyond their comfort zones, and to rally together for the greater good.
In this kind of environment, employees stop asking, "What does the boss want me to do?" and start asking, "What does the situation demand?" This shift in mindset transforms how change is experienced. Instead of being seen as a threat, change becomes an opportunity – a chance to learn, grow, and make a meaningful impact.
The Path Forward: Balancing Change and Stability
Recognizing the Need for Both
As we've explored throughout this summary, change is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's often necessary for organizations to adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving business landscape. On the other hand, constant disruption can exact a heavy toll on employees, eroding the very foundations that support engagement and performance.
The key, then, is to find a balance – to implement necessary changes while also providing the stability and support that people need to thrive. This isn't about eliminating change altogether, but about approaching it more thoughtfully and humanely.
Creating Islands of Stability
One way to achieve this balance is by creating what Goodall calls "islands of stability" within the organization. These are areas of consistency and predictability that remain constant even as other things change. This might involve:
- Maintaining consistent team structures even as the broader organization shifts
- Preserving key rituals and traditions that give people a sense of continuity
- Ensuring that core values and mission remain steady, even as strategies evolve
By providing these anchors, organizations can help their people feel more grounded and secure, even in the midst of change.
Involving Employees in the Change Process
Another crucial strategy is to involve employees more deeply in the change process itself. Rather than having change dictated from on high, organizations can create opportunities for people at all levels to contribute ideas and shape the direction of change.
This might involve:
- Town hall meetings where employees can ask questions and voice concerns
- Cross-functional task forces to tackle specific change-related challenges
- Regular pulse surveys to gauge employee sentiment and gather feedback
By giving people a voice in the process, organizations can not only tap into the collective wisdom of their workforce but also help employees feel more in control and invested in the outcomes.
Developing Change Resilience as a Core Competency
Finally, forward-thinking organizations are starting to view change resilience as a core competency – something to be actively developed and nurtured in their workforce. This might involve:
- Training programs that help employees develop skills for navigating uncertainty
- Mentoring relationships that pair experienced change navigators with newer employees
- Recognition and rewards for individuals and teams who demonstrate exceptional adaptability
By investing in these capabilities, organizations can build a workforce that's better equipped to handle whatever changes come their way.
Conclusion: A New Paradigm for Organizational Change
As we've explored in this summary of "The Problem with Change," the traditional approach to organizational change is deeply flawed. By focusing solely on the end goal and neglecting the human impact of disruption, many change initiatives end up doing more harm than good.
But there is a better way. By recognizing the hidden costs of change, providing the right kinds of support, and reimagining organizations as bastions of resilience, leaders can navigate necessary changes while preserving the engagement and well-being of their people.
The key insights from Goodall's work include:
- Change disrupts crucial connections and contexts that provide stability and meaning at work.
- The psychological toll of constant change includes uncertainty, loss of control, and disruption of social bonds.
- Leaders can mitigate the impact of change by providing space for autonomy, maintaining connections, and affirming competence.
- Forward-thinking organizations are reimagining themselves as places of groundedness and resilience, even in the face of change.
- When given clear direction but also latitude to problem-solve, people often rise to the occasion in remarkable ways.
While nothing can entirely remove the challenges of disruption, the right approach can transform how change is experienced. Instead of being a source of anxiety and disengagement, change can become an opportunity for learning, growth, and meaningful impact.
As we move forward in an increasingly volatile business landscape, the organizations that thrive will be those that master this delicate balance – implementing necessary changes while nurturing the human foundations that make great work possible. By taking the insights from "The Problem with Change" to heart, leaders and employees alike can navigate the turbulent waters of change with greater skill, resilience, and humanity.